Aligning your mindset with your dream of becoming a singer.
Eliminating the Inner Enemy
Singing can be a perilous experience.
You have hopes and dreams.
You invest your heart in some amazing fantasies.
There are icons out there who you idolize.
You’ve seen them in concert, listened to their CDs, watched them on TV, heard them interviewed — and you want to be just like them.
Can you do what it takes to get there?
Each and every artist you idolize did not get there overnight.
Just the making of their CD took a year or more — and it probably wasn’t their first recording.
They’ve had coaching, very specific training, and usually a team of individuals helping guide them to that successful place where you — and millions of others — noticed them.
They have worked hard to reach that height.
It hasn’t come easy.
The Reality of Becoming a Singer
So when you commit to a dream, to a lofty goal…
Let some realism in.
Create a timeline that is doable.
This is not the stuff of fairy godmothers and magic wands.
It is the result of:
- Voice lessons
• Performance coaching
• Dance lessons
• Maybe some acting classes
…and not for just a few weeks, but over a significant amount of time.
I’m talking about years, not months.
It’s a lot of work.
And it’s worth every minute of it.
The Role of Mindset in Singing Success
Along the way, however, you’ve got a job that’s more important than all the hard, physical work.
It’s harder than:
- Daily vocalization
• Technique training
• Body awareness and gesturing
• Projecting yourself on stage
During all that, assuming you don’t believe you’re going to daydream yourself to success, there’s one consistently challenging element you’ll face.
Please don’t minimize it.
That element is yourself.
Your mindset.
We’ll call it your self-talk.
What you truly believe about yourself is more important than any work or training you do.
And when I say “believe,” I don’t mean what you try to talk yourself into — I mean what you believe at the core level of your being.
If your dream is to be a music performer and recording star, but deep down you don’t believe you could possibly accomplish that…
Then you probably won’t.
Your self-talk will trump a hope or dream every time.
How Beliefs Shape Your Progress
So what do you do when your dream and your belief are out of alignment?
One of the interesting things about how our beliefs are wired is that we are very susceptible to demonstration.
Each time we slightly exceed our belief or expectation, that belief stretches.
That gives us an amazing opportunity to blow through limiting thinking — but it probably can’t happen overnight.
Yes, sometimes in lessons, a minor correction can produce instant improvement.
But more often than not, breakthroughs are earned.
Slow and steady wins the race.
The important point is this:
Give yourself room within your self-talk to grow through an apparently limiting situation.
Your biggest enemy is the thought:
“I can’t do that.”
Almost everything a human being can do…
We didn’t do it as well the first time as we did the 100th — or 1000th — time.
The more we try it, the better we get.
Especially if, during our trying, we’re guided by specific and focused training.
Your singing teacher will show you the best way to do everything related to singing.
And if you have:
- The talent
• The hope and dream
• The positive self-talk
• The drive
• The willingness to work
…everything is possible.
Building Positive Self-Talk as a Singer
Healthy self-talk doesn’t mean pretending everything is easy. It means giving yourself permission to grow.
Here are a few ways singers can build a healthier mindset:
- Focus on progress, not perfection
• Celebrate small improvements in tone, control, or range
• Replace “I can’t do that” with “I’m learning how to do that”
• Remember that every professional singer developed their voice over time
• Keep showing up to lessons and practice even when improvement feels slow
Confidence in singing is built the same way technique is built — through consistent effort and small victories over time.